X-Men Schism is suppose to be a ground breaking X-Men event which fractures the core of the team. But it leads us to many questions, including which team? What ideologies? Was this all hype for nothing? To give you a background as far as what leads up to this, after M Day, in which the Scarlet Witch made Mutants an extinct race with numbers less than 200. The X-Men led by Cyclops has established as a home for all mutants Utopia, which is just off of San Francisco. During their times there, Cyclops has had Wolverine create an X-Force team with members that are elite killers (Archangel, Fantomex, Warpath, Domino, Deadpool, X-23) to actively seek out threats against mutant kind and exterminate them. Without the knowledge or consent of the other mutant (or human) population. While on Utopia they have seemingly face non stop threats to them with losses of members including fan favorite Nightcrawler.

Jason Aaron is the writer behind Schism and while the story flows well, you can't help but think it's been done before. We've seen splits in the X-Men group before. We have the fight between Storm and Cyclops for leadership of the X-Men. We've had splits we're we have an Gold and Blue X-Men team. We've had Bishop fight the entire X-Men
team over Hope. So what what does Jason bring to the table that is new and fresh?

For one thing he's made Mutants generally hated by the human population again that the world tried to build Sentinel Armies against them. He's made not only the Hellfire Club relevant again but even more dangerous with a new direction and cast. He gives you a (boring a phrase from the UFC) Fight of the Night between Cyclops and
Wolverine at the end of issue Four escalating in the final issue of Five. The art is amazing. And it's not even the same artist for each issue. It's a who's who's all star of artists with Carlos Pacheco drawing the first issue, followed by Frank Cho in the second, Daniel Acuña in Third, Alan Davis in the Fourth and Adam Kubert in the Final issue. The artists not only provide amazing covers but amazing interiors that fit well with the story. If I had to pick my favorite
and worst, I would have to go with Adam Kubert and Daniel Acuña respectively. I love the lines of Kubert's works. The nitty gritty details of the sentinel for example is awesome. I also love the way he draws faces. it's simple but yet detailed in only he can do. Daniel Acuña on the hand if you've seen his other Marvel work brings a
very dark tone to issue #3. While that may be fitting to the plot of the issue it just stands out as a sore thumb among the other artists in this mini series. His style is more of a painted look that lends some realism to the characters which for some, is great. But it's just not for me.

So as mentioned before their is an epic fight between Cyclops and Wolverine. Why? Wolverine is simply tired of Cyclops using everyone, including children as X-Men. Cyclops belief that because they are near extinction that all mutants need to fight for survival, including the children. It is because of this that we see one of the more
intense battles in X-Men history that has happened in a long time. Who wins? Well if you see the solicitations of upcoming comic books, you would know that there will be two X-Men books now. (Which to me is weird because there's always been two, X-Men and Uncanny X-Men). The new X-Men book will be Wolverine and the X-Men where Wolverine will find himself in a new role as headmaster. If you see in the end of Schism #5 you see most of the New X-Men joining Wolverine as well as Indie from Hope's crew. Does this mean an end to the books New X-Men and even X-Force? We know that the Uncanny Books are ending but then restarting again, why?

This is a big turning point for the X-Men and overall I did enjoy reading the series and soaking up the art. The "break up" at the end of issue #5 is a bit rush in my opinion and should have involved more members of the X-Men have their input but perhaps we'll see that in upcoming issues as there are bound to be cross-overs. We know that a
good number of X-Men in solicitation of the new books that they've joined Wolverine as teachers of his new school. You should be able to find all five issues as back issues or wait for the upcoming trade paperback.